Adaptations

Viper Comics’ Villains has had its rights bought by Universal. Adam Cogan and Ryan Cody’s comic about “a young man who is failing at life and finds purpose when he meets a Svengali-style villain who takes him under his wing” will be adapted by Matt Jennison and Brent Strickland.

Sam Mendes will direct Columbia Pictures' movie adaptation of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Preacher graphic novel. The 75 issue series is about "the preacher of a Texas town, who is struggling to get by and is driven only by his strong moral sense. When the city is decimated by an otherworldly force, he embarks on a journey across the country to take on the evil."

Sony and Paramount will partner to finance and distribute Steven Spielberg’s Tintin trilogy. Paramount will handle the distribution in North American and certain English speaking territories and Sony will handle the foreign.

Kengo Hanazawa's boxing manga Boys on the Run will be adapted into a live action film by Daisuke Miura. Singer Kazunobu Mineta will star as Toshiyuki Tanishi, a “27-year-old man stuck in a company that sells vending machine prizes, until the day he meets an old acquaintance who is now a boxer. Inspired to try boxing himself, Tanishi joins a gym that happens to have a female trainer named Hana.” A Japanese fall release is planned for next year.

The rights to Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander fantasy novels have been bought by Essential Pictures as a potential franchise. The series of six (soon to be seven) novels are about a time traveling nurse and her 18th century Scottish Highlander husband. Essential is currently developing the first adaptation written by Randall Wallace.

Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman, and Eleanor Thompson have joined on for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Lee's role is as yet undisclosed, Rickman will be The Caterpillar [E: Awesome!], and Thompson is an original character that'll be a friend of Alice.

Geoffrey Rush, Ernie Dingo, and Missy Higgins will star in the film version of Aboriginal musical Bran Nue Dae. “The touring musical told the story of a young boy's flight from mission school back to his remote Kimberley community.”